Tensions were high at the Kalskag checkpoint at midday on Feb. 8 as current race leader Riley Dyche stood on the sled with his dog team at the ready and counted down the seconds until he was finished with his mandatory rest and could take off toward the Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race (K300)’s final checkpoint.
Pete Kaiser was just minutes behind and had already completed his mandatory rest between Kalskag and Aniak, so he could blow through the checkpoint, passing Dyche. But 12:13 p.m. came, and Dyche took off with 10 dogs on the line before Kaiser arrived.
Just one minute later, Kaiser pulled into the checkpoint next to the Kalskag community center. After fast walking to drop a dog, Kaiser headed back out on the trail in pursuit of Dyche and his ninth K300 title.
Aniak musher Richie Diehl has helped with setting and breaking trail this year. At the Kalskag checkpoint, KYUK caught up with Diehl and got his thoughts on the tight top two.
“I think those two are definitely the strongest, and it's really hard to say, like, which one's stronger right now,” Diehl said. “I mean, you have Pete [Kaiser], who's coming through here with a team that's loose because they've been running the last 30 miles. So they look good coming and leaving here, and then you have Riley's team, who is coming off with a three hour rest. They're gonna be a little stiff, but so they could easily loosen up a couple miles out and get rolling. So it's really hard to say. I would never want to be this close to Pete in the last 100 miles,” he added.
Dyche and Kaiser are putting two different race strategies on display.
Kaiser took three hours in Kalskag and three hours in Aniak, with plans to run through the final 100 miles of the race with no breaks. Dyche led the race from the start, spent three hours in Kalskag, and pushed through Aniak to return and take the remaining three hours at the inbound Kalskag checkpoint.
“When he did this this morning, I thought, ‘Man, this, if there ever was a year to do that loop, it was this year,’” Diehl said of Dyche’s move. “I mean, you had a good trail, hardback trail, and the whole run for him was in the dark. I think it was kind of a cool move on [Dyche’s] part to try something different,” Diehl said. “I mean, it worked for Matt Failor when Matt won. So, yeah, it's just kind of a little bit of a gamble. And there you have to have a little bit of a gamble in this race.”
Failor, who’s running toward the middle of the pack this year, won in 2019, employed the same Kalskag to Kalskag run, and set the speed record for the course with a time of 36 hours and 32 minutes.
Around 15 minutes after Kaiser, Mike Williams Jr. sped in and out of the inbound Kalskag checkpoint having also completed his six hours of rest. Williams Jr. was the first musher of this year’s Kuskokwim 300 to reach the halfway point of Aniak.
As of 1:30 p.m., 10 of the 17-team field had made it back to Kalskag, setting up the end stages of the race.
All mushers are required to take four hours of rest at the last checkpoint in Tuluksak before the final 50-mile push to the finish line in Bethel.
Nat Herz is in Kalskag for KYUK, and did the interviews in this story.
